THE GERMAN SOCIALISTS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 136, 8 May 1880, Page 2

THE GERMAN SOCIALISTS.

As Jr. Victor Tissot points out in his "Voyage an Pays dos Millinrds," Socialism is no new thing in Germany, as many suppose/ In the fourteenth century it wns perhaps in a more advanced state than it is now. In [3*o the wealthy Hanseatic town of Brunswick fell into the power of tho working men, who violently expelled the wealthy burgesses and organized a democratic system, in which there was a strong communistic element. At about tli" same time « socialistio movement wns started at Nuremberg, where (wo mechanics Geissbart mid I'muentiiit. had tho boldness to make war on the Rmpcmr Charles and were onlv routed Rftor a lone and bloody struggle. Jluyene... Worms, Si nisbury spires, Frank Fort, film. Augsburg soon afterwards founrlwl little communes—Hint is. indopendonl States—which governed themselves under mom or l"ss extravagant Constitutions of their >. '•'"': •• "•• '••♦-•, in [-208, nno of the m il formidable Insurrections of working men over known broke out nt riiibeck. The guilds >t artisans ami medmulcs OYOltlircw the imiulcijml council

cf merchants, and elected in their stead | oouncillors chosen from the lower ordore. | The merchants fled to Hamburg, but arrived only just in time to liud that a revolution had bnken out in this oity also, jin consequence of the Senate having dared to imprison a citizen who had spoken ill of the Duke of Saxony. The socialistic leaven which thus fermented lin every direction was vigorously suppressed but not extirpated; for in the sixteenth century the rebellions of the Communists and Anabaptists began to rage more fiercely than over. At Munstcra young tailor, John Bokko d, the notnrions John of Loyden, drove out the Bishop-Prince, and, assuming a dictatorship, organized a regnlar Communist system. All tlungs whatsoever were declared to he common property. The contents of merchants' warehouses were confiscated and removed to the municipal .storehouses ; and in return for a day's work each workman received a pavment sufficient to supply him with man'v of the luxuries and most of the Honors of the day. I his arrangement could not. last long, nor dii. it. John o Leydon awoke one morning saying that a 'divine aiU«t*tioil h*J Visited him and revealed to hnn the doctrine of cn.mlitv. All citizens must, dress alike in robes of grey, green, and white and wear -olden rings of a uniform pattern on their finger* :" at the same time there must.be a levelling of publ.c buildings, so that "egahtarianism' might be no more shocked bv the sight ot churches and palaces overtopping private houses. In pursuance of this brilliant idea, a ruthless crusade of demolition was at once undertaken, till every house in Minister was reduced t.o the ideal sl»i; but this.did not satisfy the " Prophet, who was now moved to establish polygamy. He sot the example to his subjects by ppnwnallv espousing seventeen wives; and as tlie feminne population in ftlunster was much larger than the masculine, having been swollen bv- countless nuns ' released from the convents, not to mention adventuress™? who had flocked to Monster from other towns, every citizen in Minister was enable Ho take more wives than any one man enn manage, lno married women, the mothers of families, who protested against this innovation, were beheaded. During a week or two Minister was given over to butchery ami • profiHganyof every kind: audit was no wonder that when an nrntv came t' l be- ■ si»gn the (own the defenders were not in a condition to resist John of Lnvdon, ■ having capitulated, was imprisoned in an iron cage, and carried through the cities • of I iormanv to lie exhibited as wild beast: hut though lie was uventvallv put to ! death with shocking; barbarity, his prinl cij'h's did not. die with him.

M. Tissut describes a curious interview which he bad some years aco at Leinzi>; with Messrs. Rebel and Lionknechf who were then (he ohiof representatives of Socialism in the Prussian Parliament. }>ehel was a turner; LHiknecht. a journalist, editor of tli" Viilksbtnt. a little sheei with appeared three times a week mil had I ."..nod r.-2iilar subscribers, which means ill leas! .Vt.flOO readers, These two men were constantly a-oinp; In prison. "When P.el.el was free. Liebk-uc-bt was mostly cantivo; but M. Tissot contrived, for a wonder, to see them to-cr-'tlier. and Rol flom fh-mi a statement nt i wliat in their view Socialism nivalis. To li'-j-in with, they of cause repudiated all the excesses which bad disgraced the practical application of their doctrines in flic old times; they wished to lo'i».'n the p ipnl ir linn, but, tlioy were ipiito per-

suade ! !h:il he would'ho content to food on itkiw ninl not break into any sheepfold. I>ricllv, their rheo,rv amounted to lliis: that nations should 'in- constituted like i'lint-sto"'; companies, (ho State 01 Hie (irivertunont in each country acting like a board nf directors anil be.hig trustno of the commonalty. Kvcry man was to to work to the utmost extent of liis ahilities ami to lie paid on a scale com mensurato with his needs ; so that, to uunto the motto of John of Livden. thoro should ho " no beggar* and no idlers." The artist having executed a picture, should take it to the "State," who would soil it, and, having paid him his daily dole out of the proceeds, apply thosurplus to feeding anybody whose, business might not happen to ho in a flourishing condition. And so the hntchor and baker would work for tho common advantage instead of toiling l oanh for his own hand: hut the soldier would find himself without cmployraennt—at least of a military kind ; and under the regimo of MM. Tiehel and LiobknecM there wore to bo no armies, lawyers, bankers, stockbrokers, priests, or professional politician*. Manual labour of some soi-t was to be the universal rule, and pauperism was to be done away with by the level-ling-ilnwn process. To carry out such an idea the two Socialists confessed that a strong sentiment of universal fraternity would Ik? needed; and thoy avoided statin 1 ,' how they proposed to deal with the idle brother who would either not work his best and yet expect to be comfortably fed and clothed at the expense of tho imltistrioit. From what could bo gntlferod of their philosophy, they expected that under an improved system of education work would Iwoomo tho paramount ideal of duty in every cirizcit's mind, and that thus the religion of duty lownnids our neighbour would gradually supersede that of duty towards Hod, It will not do. M, Tissot says, to laugh •it the schemes or the German Socialists, for they coma from Hi" brains of deep thinkers. There art) about u dozen Soeialist newsnsper* in thu empire, and the men who edit, them are no fools advocating theories which they have imperfectly digested. Every clause in thn programme cf the reformers boa boon .reduce.) to tho

conciseness of ft proposition in logic ; and ridicule is lost upon men who have ago accustomed themselves to challenge their adversaries to argument, leaving thorn to laugh afterwards if they please. The Socialists have made con verts in td\ classes of society and in every city: even I in America nud China their opinions nro propagated by journals which are published expressly for colonial circulation and smuggled out of the country as if they were contraband, Throughout Germany the Christian failh lias pretty nearly boon killed by over-addiction t"> logic"; hut the contemplative Teutonic mind cannot feed on the bread of drv facts alone, and, denying a paradise in another world, it. hopes to create an civslum in this. Learned professors who will Hoot the Bible as a tissuo of child's fables will tell you that thsy look to a coining time when men shall be purge.] of all human weaknesses—bo no more selfish, idle, or opinionated ; but work nil together to the best of their abilities that they may just have enough bread to li\,» on in a monotonous, joyless, unemotional world. These men cannot sec that the state of society which they want tocrpato would bo so dreary as to be hardly worth living in ; that its influence would destroy imagination, emulation, and all els., that wo are wont to view as lending a relief to individual character ; or at least they say that they do see this, but sav at the same time that they hope by their process to create a now race of mortals thinking differently on all subjects to what we do. However this may be, M, Tissot observes, one may do well to give a very brilliant German's idea of the immediate results towards which German Socialism is tending. Henry Heine prophesied the restoration of the German Empire ; but added :—''This unified empire will promptly hurry to its downfall. This cataclysm will be the result of a political and social revolution brought about by German thinker.-; and philosophers. The Kantists have already come who extirpated the final remnants of the past; the Fichteans will arrive iu their turn, and their fanaticism will not be mastered by fear or instinct, lint the most redoubtable of all will be the philosophers of nature, the Communists, who will put themselves in communication with the original power of nature and will evoke the traditions of German pantheism. Then these three choruses will commence a revolutionary chant which will make the earth tremble: and there Mill ensue in (icrnianv a drama Inside which the r'renrh IJ.'V,.lution will have been but an idvll."--Tall Mall Budget.